18 March 2013
18/03/2013 - The initiative of the Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, started years ago with the aim of removing brown bears from mini-zoological gardens and sheltering them in a suitable natural habitat, has begun to show the first results. With the help of the Vier Pfoten Foundation for the protection of wild animals, a shelter for brown bears has been established near Lake Badovc. The first resident of this shelter is a bear named Kasandara, who was being kept in isolation at the Gjeraqina restaurant near Duhla in Suhareka. With the help of professional teams from the Vier Pfoten Foundation, KFOR, and experts from IKMN, and with the support of the Kosovo Police, he has been transported and placed in the shelter.
The opening of the shelter was also attended by the Minister of Environment, Dardan Gashi, the Minister for European Integration, Vlora Çitaku, the KFOR commander, Volker Halbauer, and the Austrian ambassador to Kosovo, Johann Brieger. The Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, which operates under the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency, has recorded at least 15 brown bears kept in various mini-zoos. During this year, all these bears will be placed in the shelter established near Lake Badovc. This will be made possible thanks to the cooperation agreement signed between the MESP and the Vier Pfoten Animal Welfare Foundation. The agreement provides for the capture, transport, keeping, and care of the brown bears in the Badovc shelter. The project also foresees the training of the staff who will take care of the bears.
Such practices where protected species of bears are kept in special semi-natural shelters are implemented in many countries around the world. These practices, besides taking care of brown bears (Ursus Arctos), which are considered a threatened species of mammals, can also serve tourism purposes.
The case of Kosovo is the first in the region to be reaching completion, as Vier Pfoten had tried to support the opening of similar shelters in Albania and Serbia but had not been successful.